- Instagram Stories have become wildly popular for users to share Snapchat-like updates with their friends and followers.
- Samsung’s Galaxy S10 phones, released earlier this month, are equipped with an “Instagram mode” that lets phone users seamlessly post to their Stories from the phone’s camera.
- Here’s how the Galaxy’s “Instagram mode” works.
If you didn’t know popular Instagram Stories are, here’s an eye-opening statistic – roughly half of Instagram’s 1 billion users take advantage of the Stories feature on a daily basis.
The Stories feature has been wildly popular since it launched in August 2016, and surpassed Snapchat’s total user count in early 2017. It’s become an easy way to share status updates and interact with followers, and a simple alternative to publishing a more permanent Instagram post.
Samsung is capitalizing on the draw of Instagram Stories with a new feature on its latest line of Galaxy phones. The three iterations on the market – the Galaxy S10, Galaxy S10e, and Galaxy S10 Plus – are equipped with “Instagram mode.”
The feature allows you to post a photo or video to your Instagram Story straight from your Galaxy phone’s Camera app. It takes a few steps out of the process of posting to your Instagram Story, which is sure to be welcomed by the app’s faithful users.
Here's how "Instagram mode" on Samsung's Galaxy S10 phones works:
The current Galaxy S10 lineup consists of three models — the S10, S10e, and S10 Plus. And they all ship with Samsung's "Instagram mode."
Samsung announced the partnership with Instagram at its Unpacked event in February, when it revealed the Galaxy S10 phones. Samsung even brought out Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, to demonstrate how to post to Instagram Stories from the Galaxy S10.
Source: Business Insider
Using Instagram mode is incredibly simple on the Galaxy S10. The only prerequisite: "Instagram mode" won't appear as an option in your Camera app unless you have Instagram on your phone, and you'll need to log in to make it work.
The new Samsung Galaxy S10 phones have a slew of camera features to choose from, including portrait mode, a panorama mode, and a setting for taking pictures of food. If you swipe all the way to the left, you'll find "Instagram."
The first time you snap a picture with Instagram mode, you'll be greeted with a series of pop up windows to give Instagram access to the pictures, video, and audio you record with your phone's camera. You'll need to grant Instagram access the first time.
Take a picture or video of whatever you want to upload to your Stories, like this picture I took of the BI office. After snapping a picture, the effects and features typically available to decorate your Instagram Stories will pop up. There's no changing of apps — you can edit your picture directly from the Camera.
I added some text and a location tag to my Stories post. Just like in the Instagram app, I can save my Story to my phone, add it to my Story, or send it to select Instagram users. That's it.
However, it's worth noting that the quality of the Instagram Stories setting on the Galaxy S10 is ... subpar. While the S10 has some of the best cameras on any smartphone, Instagram Mode bizarrely reduces your image quality. For comparison, here's a photo I took straight from Instagram itself on the iPhone.
That means that if you care about image quality, you might have to give up on the ease-of-use of Instagram Mode. Which is a bummer, because otherwise, it's a very handy feature.
